QotW9: Get ready to STOMP

With the increment of leading edge technologies, the ways in which people communicate has transformed. Technology has given us a new medium – the Internet – that allows us to communicate in more than one way. Now, we can have one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many communications all via the same medium. With such advancement, citizens are able to contribute to journalism without professional training (“Citizen Journalism”, 2007).

Citizen journalism can also be known as “participatory journalism”. It means that people without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others (“Citizen Journalism”, 2007). Blogs are one of the most common tool that people choose to use when exercising citizen journalism.

Just last year, The Straits Times, Singapore Press Holding’s flagship newspaper decided to go beyond its 161-year-old newspaper medium. It decided to engage and interact with its readers through the use of a fully-interactive website known as STOMP (Straits Time Online Mobile Print) (SPH, 2006). Singaporeans are able to post new and interesting findings that they want to share with others through this website.

In order to increase interactivity and easy connection, STOMP allows the public to communicate with them in more than one way. The public can use the mobile to call in, or use short message service (SMS) or multimedia message service (MMS) to share their news. Alternatively, they can send an email or log onto the website to talk to the newspaper. Apart from that, they can also participate in the online forums and chats found within the website. In addition, there are other features such as photo galleries, online polls and even virtual clubs (e.g.: food club and digital club). With the rise of blogs, STOMP also included a “Star Blog” section in the website. Readers are able to interact with their favorite bloggers (includes Dawn Yang and Xiaxue) by commenting on their blogs.

Personally, I found the content rather interesting. It encompasses a wide range of news which included happening events that took place around Singapore, issues that bothered the public, travel places and even lost and found notices. Indeed, with the broad array of topics and features, STOMP does provide its readers with new avenues to express themselves.In my opinion, STOMP can be considered as an ideal form of citizen journalism as it allows citizens to participate and contribute to journalism. Readers are able to join online forums to share and discuss matters with others. It is a great place for people to read up on news or events that happened but not reported by the newspapers. The photos and videos that are attached to the news make it more interesting for the readers. However, I feel that there is a need for more concern when photos and videos are part of the content. Anyone with a moderate amount of skill with Photoshop or other image-­manipulation software can distort reality. Special effects make even videos untrustworthy (Gillmore, 2004). How can one be so sure that the photos and videos are truly authentic? It is not impossible for people to edit or manipulate images and videos. There may be possibilities that the images and videos are scripted. Meaning, what was captured may be done deliberately and not an actual incident. With the availability of image-manipulation software, one can never be too sure about the genuineness of the images. I think more deliberation should be put in when viewing any images or videos. Sources need to be considered and claims need to be verified carefully before reacting towards the news. According to STOMP (2007), they express that they do not monitor, interfere or edit the materials that are posted, and may only remove the materials if someone objects to it. It would be good that they can monitor the materials to a certain extent or at least verify the multimedia objects so as to prevent any form of distortion.

As a whole, STOMP has done quite a good job in exhibiting citizen journalism. The content is entertaining and it certainly does attract Singaporeans. Currently, STOMP may not seem that ideal because it is still relatively new, but it does not mean that it will not become an ideal form of citizen journalism for Singaporeans. Personally, I feel that in time to come, STOMP will get better as it matures.

References:

Gillmor, D. (2004, July). We the Media, Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. Retrieved March 29, 2007 from http://download.nowis.com/index.cfm?phile=WeTheMedia.html&tipe=text/html
Citizen Journalism. (2007, March 28,) From In: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 29, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Citizen_journalism&oldid=118429022
STOMP. (2007). “Terms and Conditions”. March 29, 2007, from http://www.stomp.com.sg/tnc.html

STOMP. (2006). “About Us”. March 29, 2007, from http://www.stomp.com.sg/about/about.html

SPH. (2006, June 14). The Straits Times extends its reach with bold new platform STOMP. Retrieved March 29, 2007, from http://www.sph.com.sg/news/latest/press_060614_001.html